texasstar wrote:If I were a Lake Dallas resident, I might be a little bit unhappy with the tone in this thread.

Thank God, I'm not.

I don't think your typical LD resident reads this forum, nor do they particularly care what the forum might think of their city.

As for the HQ site selection, the article says it all:

The building in Lake Dallas will serve as Evolutions Brands’ headquarters, encompassing the home office, warehouse for wholesale and e-commerce distribution, as well as a manufacturing facility.

They wanted an Office, Warehouse, and Manufacturing facility all in one building, and presumably there was a suitable space for the right price in Lake Dallas. I'm curious if they got any tax incentives since LD has one of the highest property tax rates in Denton County.

No idea if the design and merchandising jobs are also moving, but if they are, I imagine they won't have much trouble backfilling the roles of people who don't want to leave California to work in icky Lake Dallas- those aren't fields with a labor shortage around here.

They could also easily office the creative department in another part of DFW if that was imperative to attracting talent if they were also relocated to Texas. Sounds like their priorities for the HQ were in the warehouse selection.

cowboyeagle05 wrote:They could also easily office the creative department in another part of DFW if that was imperative to attracting talent if they were also relocated to Texas.

I work with a major user experience consulting and software development company based in Dallas. They are an acknowledged leader in their industry, with clients like Mercedes Benz, Dell, Samsung, Neiman Marcus, Capital One and Expedia. They have over 100 employees in the Dallas office, with branches in Austin and Seattle. They regularly make "best places to work" lists. They fit every stereotype of the 21st century high tech company. You won't find a more "creative class" place than this.

I've only know one single person there who lives south of 635. That's the CEO, who lives in Preston Hollow. The vast majority live north of the GWB.

Two generations ago, companies like Dr Pepper set up shop one the affluent edge of rapidly growing 'cities' and flourished as pioneering the suburban corporate campus. This trend has been so successful, the edge of the city is turning into a city and undermining the many of the promoted benefits of edge living.

If you really think about it, it's not surprising at all that the most desirable office location on the horizon is downtown. Dr Pepper should move into the city, wrest itself from Keurig (...those Northeasterners are probably still mad about Snapple) and work out a plan to survives the inevitable marketplace public health wake-up call that pop is a treat, only good a couple times a week, not a three times a day.

The rolling thunder in Plano/Frisco is straining under its own weight, and needs a quality of life check; unforeseen adaptations to what has become a mixed-use boilerplate making Collin County one of the most successful new places in the country are a requirement to avoid the sort of deep-freeze that hit Dallas CBD. In the mean time, these pioneering exurbia founders will begin the trip back into the city, eventually.

What is interesting to me is that these giant tech companies all list mass transit as an important part of there deal but Apple Google etc. all go to Austin which has some of the worst traffic and no rail system of any significance. Transit must not be a thing after all.

Quite disappointing, but good for Austin. I agree, though, their transit system is severely lacking, and they can barely keep up with the influx of people as it is.

They do have a more cohesive and complete Downtown area, so perhaps that is the major draw to the area. It's a smaller urban core, because they lack all the other regions that Dallas has (Uptown, Bishop Arts, Deep Ellum, etc..), but, as a result, they've really filled in their Downtown quite nicely, and anyone who lives and works Downtown can get around pretty easily on foot.

I guess a three quarters of a million square foot prelease is always a surprise, but it shouldn't be a surprise that they got it over DFW. When Oracle opened a 560-Ksf campus there less than a year ago, only to announce permits for another 420-Ksf addition, Austin Business Journal noted,

"Even though construction isn't complete on the new downtown office tower mostly [232Ksf] leased by Facebook Inc., the social media giant has leased all of the planned Domain 12 tower [17 floors, 320Ksf].

Indeed Inc. recently signed a lease for 10 floors of the Block 71 skyscraper downtown, even as it is awaiting the completion of another Domain tower. Meanwhile HomeAway Inc. is expanding at The Domain even as it awaits the completion of its new headquarters nearby."

Cbdallas wrote:What is interesting to me is that these giant tech companies all list mass transit as an important part of there deal but Apple Google etc. all go to Austin which has some of the worst traffic and no rail system of any significance. Transit must not be a thing after all.

Just like transit must not be a thing, the head of Amazon's Austin operations has crowed, "We're not big on sterile environments here," and yet today's brand new Amazon lease is for half of this extremely sterile fortress:

Sterile with very little accessible public transportation. With that said, hats off to The Domain area, they seem to be killing it lately. Almost seems like they are experiencing their own version of the boom we saw at DNT/121 not too long ago.

I45Tex wrote:Just like transit must not be a thing, the head of Amazon's Austin operations has crowed, "We're not big on sterile environments here," and yet today's brand new Amazon lease is for half of this extremely sterile fortress:

Sterile but easy to pack a lot of employees into a new rectangular box -- "frugality" is one of their main tenets afterall. I've worked on several buildings for tech firms at The Domain... the mixed-use development allows the neighborhood to provide amenities that the companies don't want to manage (restaurants, etc); with money saved the "empty box" can be transformed with locally-inspired design to make it feel more urban than it really is. The Dallas office for Amazon at the Galleria isn't much different.

Local media in Amarillo has learned that the American Quarter Horse Association headquarters could be moving to Fort Worth. There is an AQHA museum up there adjacent to the association's current headquarters site. I would guess that if the offices move, they would likely move their museum as well. Another big loss, potentially, for Amarillo after losing the National Cowgirl Hall of Fame/Museum from nearby Hereford to Fort Worth a few years ago. Also previously departed from Amarillo was the Sterquell Wagon Collection, which also relocated to Fort Worth a few years ago. It will be interesting to see if the city/economic development folks in Amarillo let the AQHA get away from them also, or if they try to keep them there somehow.

and according to numbers further on down is ranked an equally comfortable fifth in the USA (and also North America) for total industrial space square footage, behind only Southern California, NY-NJ-CT Tristate, Chicagoland, and Philadelphia. By their standardization we have about 780 million square feet of warehouse/distribution space today, and about 910 million square feet once factory and flex industrial space is included.

itsjrd1964 wrote:Local media in Amarillo has learned that the American Quarter Horse Association headquarters could be moving to Fort Worth. There is an AQHA museum up there adjacent to the association's current headquarters site. I would guess that if the offices move, they would likely move their museum as well. Another big loss, potentially, for Amarillo after losing the National Cowgirl Hall of Fame/Museum from nearby Hereford to Fort Worth a few years ago. Also previously departed from Amarillo was the Sterquell Wagon Collection, which also relocated to Fort Worth a few years ago. It will be interesting to see if the city/economic development folks in Amarillo let the AQHA get away from them also, or if they try to keep them there somehow.

By ABC7 ArchiveSAN RAMON, Calif."It's not something you that you want to see, losing 800 jobs. That's a big impact in San Ramon," president and CEO of the San Ramon Chamber of Commerce Stewart Bambino told ABC7 News. 800 jobs is also about one-fourth of Chevron's total work force at its San Ramon headquarters.

Five business units are involved, all of which support Chevron's oil exploration and alternative fuel research. All of those workers will now work side-by-side in Houston.

Not to seem over anxious, but maybe all the scientists will be in Houston (area) and the shirts will be in Dallas' Smart District.

It often works better for the scientists that way, but please, don't shirts already think they're smart enough as it is? Save them the daily undeserved pat on the back from our real estate development name, or they'll be in the red before you know it.

By ABC7 ArchiveSAN RAMON, Calif."It's not something you that you want to see, losing 800 jobs. That's a big impact in San Ramon," president and CEO of the San Ramon Chamber of Commerce Stewart Bambino told ABC7 News. 800 jobs is also about one-fourth of Chevron's total work force at its San Ramon headquarters.

Five business units are involved, all of which support Chevron's oil exploration and alternative fuel research. All of those workers will now work side-by-side in Houston.

Not to seem over anxious, but maybe all the scientists will be in Houston (area) and the shirts will be in Dallas' Smart District.

Way to create fake news Tamtagon.

The only thing the article says about moving the HQ is that they are not: "Chevron said its headquarters will remain in San Ramon."

Tamtagon, you're right and Tucy, you're wrong. Starting your post "way to create fake news Tamtagon" is derogatory. Even if it weren't though, you have to realize everyone on this board is going to assume your intent is negative when you treat them as poorly as you do.

Chevron might be moving HQ from Bay Area to Texas, Houston probably.......Not to seem over anxious, but maybe all the scientists will be in Houston (area) and the shirts will be in Dallas' Smart District.

"Might be" "probably" "maybe"

The initially linked media information posted Chevron's statement that the HQ would remain in the East Bay. That sure seemed like the time McKesson denied it was moving it's HQ.

I dont remember if Schwab performed that same song and dance.

I suppose, propose and who-knows all over this forum; that Chevron would move HQ to Texas is right in line. Forum discussion is lucky to have a tethering, too, since it makes the wanderings that much more fun.

Chevron might be moving HQ from Bay Area to Texas, Houston probably.......Not to seem over anxious, but maybe all the scientists will be in Houston (area) and the shirts will be in Dallas' Smart District.

"Might be" "probably" "maybe"

The initially linked media information posted Chevron's statement that the HQ would remain in the East Bay. That sure seemed like the time McKesson denied it was moving it's HQ.

I dont remember if Schwab performed that same song and dance.

I suppose, propose and who-knows all over this forum; that Chevron would move HQ to Texas is right in line. Forum discussion is lucky to have a tethering, too, since it makes the wanderings that much more fun.

The Bay Area is right outside Houston- moving from Galveston Bay to Houston would mean they're staying within the same area.